Bush's Shift in Strategy Gets Dubious Reception On Streets of Baghdad

"It's not bad, but it could be good, if it was real," he said. "I apologize for my enthusiasm," he added with evident sarcasm. "But he who is to be beaten with sticks does not like the one who fashions the sticks."

To the artists and writers drinking the anise-flavored liquor called arak under the fruit trees outside the Dialogue Gallery, Bush's pledge of progress carried about as much weight as the paper in Abdul Hamid's hands.

The gallery owner, Qasim Sabti, said he agreed with many of the goals Bush espoused: amending the constitution, disbanding the militias, giving Sunnis an equitable role.

"In my opinion, disbanding the militias and the entire American plan -- it might fail for one particular reason," Sabti said. "The militias are actually the Ministry of Interior itself. And the national guards are infiltrated by other militias. So the most basic, the most important, pillars on which the plan is based, I think they will fall."

Sabti said Iraq has reached the disturbing state where many people feel more comfortable at the sight of American soldiers, considered an occupying army, than of their own government's police officers.

Maliki's advisers said Bush's remarks aligned with many of their own goals, such as targeting extremists regardless of their sect, passing laws to share oil revenue among the country's disparate regions, easing the guidelines that purged thousands of members of Hussein's Baath Party from their jobs after the U.S.-led invasion, and holding provincial elections.

Abdul Mahdi, the Shiite vice president, who is not in Maliki's party, said arranging provincial elections was no small matter. "They have not been discussed up to now," he said. "It depends on constitutional amendments -- and making big changes. It will not be easy to have elections without those changes."

But Mariam Rayis, a foreign affairs adviser to Maliki, said the Iraqi government "must mobilize all its energies to make its security plan a success."

Rayis said she had "reservations" about Bush's remarks regarding Iran and Syria. In his address, Bush said, "These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq," and he vowed to disrupt their efforts to influence Iraq.

"They are regional states," Rayis said. "There is a sense that opening up a dialogue with those states would offer a better chance of reaching an agreement instead of taking hard-line policies toward them."

Maliki was initially wary of bringing in more U.S. troops, especially if they were intended simply to magnify a force that had failed to slow the sectarian killing, according to an Iraqi government official close to Maliki who spoke on condition of anonymity. But the prime minister now supports the influx of U.S. forces, the official said.

"It was after reaching some sort of agreement with the American side that these American troops would be tackling the areas where terrorists are planning their attacks," namely the Sunni insurgent strongholds on the outskirts of Baghdad, the official said.

Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 American commander in Iraq, said this week that U.S. troops would start operating in Baghdad's core and then move to the periphery over a matter of months, but he denied that this approach was intended to target one sect over the other.

Wright reported from Washington. Staff writer Glenn Kessler in Washington and special correspondent Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad contributed to this report.